Friendly: Al Sadd - Milan, March 4th, 2009

Soooo another midweek friendly overseas to get our players tired and I guess to make more money off Beckham. Just praying for no injuries and youth team players thank you very much.

I know a whole bunch of people going to this one. But I dont understand all these midweek friendlies, and its like a 7 hour flight from Milano, so it just don't make sense.

Guess it'll be a chance to see Mattioni and Silva again.

Milan is now a circus. The Qatar club won't pay much if only youth players or second team play against them. This is really ridiculous from the management. Midweek between two Seria A games we have a friendly in Asia!

Please stay sane Berlusconi! If you think you can't afford the money to run the club, sell the club!!! We have already so many problems with injuries and yet we look for another injuries. Crap!!!

Serie A obviously is (was) our objective with all these friendlies ....
Just another opportunity to get injuries. I keep thinking maybe the lack of UCL this season is a reason for these games.

It would be funny and sad at the same time if a member of the management criticizes NT friendlies as some big clubs do from time to time.

The day we played Rangers, Galliani actually explained why we've arranged all these friendlies. Judge for yourself if it sounds plausible or not...

"Queste amichevoli sono nate per via dell'uscita dalla Coppa Italia, giochiamo nelle stesse date in cui Inter e Juventus giocano la Coppa Italia."

- Adriano Galliani.

And what exactly does that mean Capo Ultra?

Anyway, I agree with Siregar and Reza, these kind of friendlies in the middle of the competition are completely unnecessary, especially when we consider our team level of fitness. It's sad to see the most decorated club in the football world begins to look more like Harlem Globetrotters

Galliani is lying. He says we play friendlies cozInter and Juve play coppa matches etc... so basically we are not doing any harm etc.

This is bull****. We are flying to Asia to earn money from oil sellers coz Milan doesnt play CL. How come Milan doesnt play friendly in Croatia, Serbia, Hungarya, Romania? Well coz they will not earn milion dollars from it.

And all of the circus start will have to be there: Becks, Dinho... se we can sell commercials. Instead of having real and serious preparations in Milanello. Which we didnt have for 3 years now.

hail to the LA CONSPIRACY theory!
poor Berlusconi is trying to make ends meet by making money off Milan!

mrki's essentially got it right for me. We make some cash from these trips and that's the reason for them. I'm not so upset with this friendly. We should be able to consolidate our CL spot this season (that said we ought to be very careful in that respect) and we're out of the scudetto race now anyway.

I'm more annoyed to see another season of failure than to see us playing these friendlies.

Berlusconi is a politician. And if anything, the friendlies are about establishing relationships with influential people from influential countries.

Originally Posted by ACMILAN1983

I'm more annoyed to see another season of failure than to see us playing these friendlies.

lol... what? how do you try out alternative tactical schemes? how do you test players that are not in the main squad?

Mattioni might become a 1st team player thanks to one of these friendlies.

That is a fair point fLame, but I don't see how these friendlies can really show the skill of a player - its against 'lesser' opposition, therefore not a testing environment, and only one match. At least it is a way of letting the reserves/b team play, like the reserve league in the Premier League.
I'm not completely against these friendlies but just find the timing harmful to our season.

Originally Posted by fLame

lol... what? how do you try out alternative tactical schemes? how do you test players that are not in the main squad?

Mattioni might become a 1st team player thanks to one of these friendlies.

You need to start learning to read my posts.

I've said I'm not against this friendly and I'm more annoyed at our season thus far than this friendly.

Flame is absolutely right!!!v Berlu is a Politician who is a wealthy Businessman too..those are the worst kind. I have some arguments to support Flame`s statement.

We played with FC Tirana last year, it was reported that we gained round 2 mil from that game...which is a nice sum...however that doesnt cover only the embarrassment of loosing to a side which is pathetic by all means. U would ask what is the catch here?
The game was arranged btw the wealthiest person in Albania(by the way is a business partner with Morrati, who also controls the government of Albania) and The most Powerful man in Italy, Berlu. One month after the game Berlu comes personally in Albania and makes and investment of 2.5 bilion euros. I dont know I may be crazy but I see some truth when Flame says that the games are just a mask for much more profitable business and political relationships.

The other game we played against Hamburg, organized bu Fly Emirates, our sponsor. Do you know how much we gain from them on yearly basis, lousy 1.5 mil, and with that we are obliged to play in this friendly..I`m sure that Fly Emirates have tripled that investment just in the first half .And makes me wonder why the hell isnt Arsenal playing their friendlies, they build a stadium for them, for god sake.

After the game Galliani comes all smiley and starts bragging how we managed to persuade Fly Emirates to increase their sponsorship from 1.5 to 2.5 mil per year.

This is pathetic, Real and Man Utd get sponsorship deals of 1 bilion euros and our biggest sponsor BWIN pays us 15 mil per year.

With all the success we`ve had in recent history, and we have made small investment in new players,and still face financial crisis that to me is Bad Marketing, nothing else.

Bit of topic guys, sorry but I`m really pissed of lately

Originally Posted by kastriot

This is pathetic, Real and Man Utd get sponsorship deals of 1 bilion euros and our biggest sponsor BWIN pays us 15 mil per year.

There is something wrong there ...

The 1 Billion € sponsorship isn't what these clubs earn in one year !! Seriously, if that was their annual incoming, they could cancel their enormous debts in one year !!

The fact is that when we signed with BWIN, we were the most paid club by its sponsors in the world !! That has probably changed since ... but I'm sure about it because I read it in many business websites when we signed.

EDIT:
- We signed a 4-year deal with BWIN in 2006 for 15M €/year (60M € deal for 4 years)
- Real signed a 3-year deal with BWIN in 2007 for 20M €/year (60M € deal for 3 years)

So the records have changed ... anyway, if we extend the contract next year, the income revenue will be higher of course !!